


The Green Fingered God

by Palefire73



Series: Prisoners. The Chronicles of Loki and Erika [18]
Category: Loki - Fandom, Marvel
Genre: Alternate Reality, Budding Magical Powers, Disappointment and Hope, F/M, Fluff, Imprisonment, Loki becomes a teacher, Love, Romance, nice Loki, norse gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 10:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11803737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: Things are going well inside Thor's commissioned prison for Loki; Erika and Loki are quite content and are kept busy.After a winter storm, Erika learns a lesson Loki was taught centuries ago by his most cherished teacher.





	The Green Fingered God

 

One of the most satisfying pursuits in life is bringing something into existence and watching it grow and flourish. For some people, this will be their children, for some their animals, for some their art. For others, it will be their crops, which are often linked to their income and the success of their agricultural skills is perhaps somewhat more important in those circumstances. The small holding where Loki and Erika now lived was their sole source of income, although The Vision had ensured that their finances had a few different ways of being brought in. There were a few fields lying nearer the perimeter and these were currently rented out to the neighbouring farms, about four of the horses currently being stabled on the small holding actually belonged to people in the tiny hamlet just down the road (this was a lot nearer than the town where the market was held) and brought in a fair income from their fees, the management of the small wooded areas of the land meant that there would be plenty of timber to sell and of course, Erika and Loki bartered their surplus crops. Neither of them was particularly extravagant and so they did not need a huge amount of money anyway; as long as they had enough to buy foodstuffs they did not produce for themselves and for materials to use around the farm, it would do, and any extra was a welcome bonus.

 

It was this relatively simple life that Erika found herself settling into very easily; although some of the tasks were arduous, they were no worse than the ones she had endured at the Palace and she had Loki and Hans to help out when required. Aside from the day-to-day chores, there was plenty of time to pursue her interest in growing plants and her current projects included winter flowers, keeping corms and bulbs healthy for planting out in the Spring and raising winter crops. The huge greenhouse situated at the top of a small hill near the wild flower meadow was invaluable in her enterprise and over the weeks that she had been at the farm, she had carefully prepared the nursery beds and had sown the seeds for winter salad crops. Loki had lined the greenhouse to a certain extent to help to keep away the worst of the frosts, but it was in a fairly exposed place in order to take advantage of the sun and it got assailed by chilly winds quite a lot. Fortunately, Erika had spent a lot of time on her Grandparents’ farm as a child and Johannes had taught her a few tricks of the trade whenever she had gone to visit with her brother. One of those tricks was how to heat a greenhouse in the Winter so that the very worst of the frost would be kept at bay and the only thing one needed was a plentiful supply of horse muck.

 

“I need the both of you to help me, do you think you will have some free time after lunch tomorrow?” Erika smiled as sweetly as she could and stood up on her tip toes to kiss Loki’s cheek. She wrinkled her nose as her lips grazed the stubble on his face which was now a couple of days old, something he would never have allowed to happen when he was ruling back in Asgard. Although she was not particularly fond of the ginger scruff decorating his usually smooth face, it was another aspect of him which distanced him from the person he had been and perhaps showed that the vain part of him was no longer as prominent.

 

Erika raised her eyebrow as she waited for an answer from Loki, whose eyes were fixed on her in an affectionate manner, their beautiful colours – blue? green? a mixture of the two? – sparkling as he studied her. He stroked her hair and smiled warmly as he nodded, “For you? Of course we will. What is it you would have us do?”

“I need you to move a cartload of horse manure up to the green house please. I have a method of keeping it from completely freezing that my grandfather showed me, but I need a lot of manure to put it into place.”

“So you need me to shift a big pile of horse sh..”

“Yes, please!” Laughed Erika, “And less of the language!” She slapped his arm playfully and gasped as he caught her hand, pulling her close and fixing her with a mischievous stare.

“You are so violent, Miss Mikkelsdottr! I would much prefer being persuaded to help you with a kiss…”

“Then you shall have one.” Erika reached up to curl her fingers in Loki’s rich auburn hair and kissed him soundly on the lips before smiling up at her handsome God. “I will have it all piled on to the cart by the end of the morning and then perhaps you and Hans can take it up to the greenhouse for me?”

 

Loki grinned at her comical enthusiasm “Your wish is my command my dear lady! But now I am fatigued from the arduous tasks I have undertaken today and I must get some sleep.” He raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them lightly, his eyes locking onto hers in a very intense look. Just as she felt herself melting under his gaze, he said, “Goodnight, my sweet Erika.” and winked before turning and ascending the stairs to go to his room. Erika watched him go and wondered once more at just how relaxed and friendly he was. He really was the man she had glimpsed underneath the cold and arrogant veneer when she had served as his maid in the Palace back in the real Asgard! A bubble of contentment lifted her spirits and she all but floated up to her own room that evening, knowing there was nothing that could spoil her newfound happiness.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The following day the weather had a rare break and was relatively dry and calm. There were still a few drifts of snow here and there, but the sun was shining and it was fairly cheerful. Hans and Loki completed their mornings’ chores and when they came back into the yard, they saw that Erika had indeed shovelled nearly a full cartload of straw and manure from the large pile it was kept in for rotting down. Although it was not completely fresh, it still had a fair odour to it and everyone wrinkled their noses after lunch as they took the cart up to the greenhouse in order to off load it. Loki was amused to find that the young woman had no intention of doing any of the shovelling at the other end and instead directed the two men in how and where she wanted it putting. He was quite impressed to see that she had dug a trench to the rear of the greenhouse where the ground was a bit higher and about half of the manure went in there before he back filled it to her specification. Then she asked that the other half of the manure was taken inside the greenhouse and placed in smaller trenches she had created around the nursery beds where the winter salad crops were growing.

 

After about an hour, Loki stood with his hands resting on the shovel he had been using and he nodded in the direction of what he and Hans had accomplished, “Will that do, Erika? What have you had us do here?”

“The manure is half rotted, so it is well on its way to releasing nutrients which are important to plants, but it still has a way to go. Did you notice anything about it?”

“Yes!” Exclaimed Loki, “It pongs!”

“Noooo! It is warm!” Laughed Erika, and Hans nodded as he realised she was right. “It gives off heat as it breaks down and my grandfather used to put it in specially constructed bins underneath his greenhouses to keep the frost away during the winter. My attempt is not as good, but it will do until next year when I will have time to modify the foundations of this one.” She stood back with her hands on her hips and appraised the work. “Well done lads! She waved towards the house, “Let us go back now and I have a treat for you both to reward you for your hard work.”

 

She led the two men back to the house, where she insisted they cleaned up in the utility room before they went through to the kitchen and they were soon tucking in to baked apples stuffed with juicy sultanas and spiced with dark sugar and cinnamon. She provided a jug of homemade custard flavoured with some Asgardian Vanilla she had bought at the market and as both men scraped every morsel from their bowls, she smiled happily; for her, this was what family life was all about. It was not long before Hans left for home and Loki and Erika spent the rest of the evening curled up on the sofa making up little tales about shapes they saw in the glowing logs of the fire.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was about two weeks later that the storm struck. All of the shutters were closed and secured against the high winds and blustering snow, which was so cold they could hear hail clattering against them every now and again. It went on until the early hours of the morning and Erika was so tired from being kept awake that she slept through her morning alarm. A gentle hand stroking her hair back from her face was the first thing she felt and as she slowly opened her eyes, she became aware of the pressure of someone sitting beside her on her bed and then the smell of rich coffee tantalised her nostrils.

“Good morning Erika, or perhaps I should say good afternoon!” Loki’s face came into focus as Erika awoke and she sat up to see a tray on her bedside table holding a large cup of fragrant coffee and a toasted fruit teacake topped with butter. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and smiled at Loki, leaning forward and holding out her arms for a hug. “Good mor… afternoon. How have I managed to sleep this long?!”

“It was an incredible storm last night. It disturbed me, so I am quite sure you must have found it difficult to sleep.” His eyes skipped over her tired face and tousled hair.

“Yes I did. Mmmm…” Erika gave Loki an appreciative, if somewhat lop-sided grin as she devoured the teacake and slurped at her coffee, “Thank you Loki, this is delicious!”

“You’re welcome. I did not want to let you sleep much longer as you said you had much to do today.”  
“Yes, there is a lot to do.” She sighed, “Probably more after that spectacle last night.”  
“To be honest, Erika, you will be lucky. There was a lot of snow last night and there are a lot of branches down from the older trees. I think I will be kept busy all afternoon cleaning up storm debris, never mind carrying out some of the things I had planned to do.”

“Oh well. I will get up and go to see how thing are. It was only tending my salad crops and then I was going to spend the evening having a go at crocheting something with that wool I bought last week.”

 

Loki left then, taking the cup and plate away and once Erika had dressed, she put on her winter boots and coat and trudged up the small lane through the fresh snow fall to get to the greenhouse. As she rounded the bend and it came into view, however, she could see that there was something wrong. An old tree that stood just behind the greenhouse had suffered badly in the storm and a large branch had fallen from it, smashing through one end of the roof of the greenhouse after it had broken off the main trunk. It was poking out through one of the frames which made up the roof and Erika could see that snow had been falling in through the broken panes all night. Disappointment welled up as she hurried through the drifts to get to the greenhouse and wrestled with the door to get it open. Bitter tears sprang to her eyes and a sob escaped her when she saw the state of the interior of the greenhouse; the end where the branch had broken through was in a complete mess, although luckily it was where she stored the empty trays and pots and they had taken the brunt of the damage and snow. However, right next to them were the nursery beds where she was currently growing her winter salads and it was the state of these which brought on the crying. What had been tall and proud salad onions, large and leafy green and red lettuces and clumps of deep green winter cress was now a bedraggled snow dusted bed of damaged and frozen vegetation. As she took in the sight of her ruined crops, sadness washed over Erika; she had put in so much effort to try to grow healthy tasty food to eat that the emotional investment had been significant. To see it all demolished in one fell swoop was heart breaking and she felt as if someone had knocked the stuffing out of her. She just stood there as tears rolled down her cheeks, her shoulders slumped and with no idea as to what to do next.

 

The sound of boots approaching in the snow was quickly followed by two strong arms encircling her from behind with a gentle kiss on the top of her head and she leant back into the sympathetic embrace of the man she loved.

“I worked so hard…” her voice was small and full of unhappiness and Loki was taken back to a time when he had first had to learn that plants have lots of different life cycles and that some die back in the Winter. He had only been very young and Frigga had patiently explained that some plants needed to “die” in order to be reborn in the Spring. He wrapped his arms around Erika lovingly, fully aware that this must be truly upsetting to her. He could feel it. Deep within her, emotions were stirring about this situation and he realised that the longer she stewed over this, the more likely she was to blow up and perhaps cause herself harm with the power she might unleash. She could potentially cause more damage to the greenhouse and injure herself if she was not careful and he realised he had to divert her from an uncontrolled reaction. In the same way he had needed to learn how to use just enough power to get the job done, it was his turn now to teach and to guide someone.

 

“We can remedy this, Erika.” He ventured and he felt her react.

“We can?” That small voice, full of hope now, wondering what it was they could do.

“Yes. The plants are not dead; they are merely damaged. If we really wanted to, we could wash them and eat them; they would just not look as nice. Yet you must know that you can do something about this. It is simply that you cannot moderate how you expend your power.”

“Teach me, Loki.” Erika turned around and looked up at him hopefully, “Show me what to do!”

Loki looked down at the girl in his arms, her bright blue eyes begging him to help her, small plumes of warm breath escaping her pink lips as she became hopeful. By the Norns, she was beautiful and his heart went out to her; helping her would be his pleasure.

“First of all, we need to prevent further damage… the tree has another weak branch and we must get it down before it can fall on the greenhouse.” He pointed and Erika saw what he meant, “Do you want to do it?” He asked, but she shook her head.

“I do not know how…”

“Follow your feelings, Erika.”  
“But you said that I spend too much energy!”

“Let me help you.” Loki embraced her from behind and reached around to hold one of her hands. “The power does not actually come from your hand, it comes from your whole body, but you use your hand to focus and project it. Allow your instinct to take the helm, Erika. What would you do with this branch?”

“I would push it so it fell harmlessly behind the tree, where it cannot fall towards the greenhouse.”

“Then do it…” Loki gently raised Erika’s hand and pointed it towards the broken branch, “Sense it… and command it!”

 

The Trickster felt his whole being start to buzz in reaction to the power which quickly built in Erika: it was too fast!

“Slow down.” He whispered and felt her relax a little, “Allow the command to come into your mind, but gradually rather than in a rush.”

“I will…” breathed Erika, and he felt the power build, but this time it was a steady increase and her fingertips began to gently glow with an inner light. Then she stiffened in his arms and the Words of Power erupted from her lips in the same way as he had witnessed before. The branch catapulted twenty feet away, but this time Erika did not pass out; she just sagged and breathed hard as if she had just run up a hill. “Did I do it right? Was I better?” Her legs were weak, but she managed to turn around and look hopefully up at Loki, who smiled kindly.

“That was better, but I think we should be careful. You still used far too much energy and you look a little grey around the gills. Please allow me to mend the rest of the damage." Erika looked so disappointed and he pitied her; it was so easy to want to master something like this and yet so difficult to follow the advice of a teacher and to take the steady route to becoming proficient. He stroked her cheek and smiled lovingly at her, “You did well. But you still have much to learn and it would be my honour to teach you.” He looked back towards the devastation and blue light drifted from his fingertips over towards the pile of dirty snow and broken shards of glass. Erika leaned against him as she stared in wonder at how the glass flew upwards and knitted itself back into solid panes and as the snow melted and trickled away. The flattened and broken vegetation straightened up and became the healthy crops they had been just a day ago. Loki was right; she felt fatigued and it could only be down to her attempt to put things right. She accepted his proffered arm as they went back to the farmhouse and he insisted that she curled up on the large sofa to have a go at her crocheting when they got there. He came over with one of his many books to read and they settled comfortably together to while away the afternoon in front of the cosy fire before thinking about making the evening meal, but Erika could not get the desire to learn how to put things right using her… Seidr?... Magic?... Power?... she did not know exactly what it was.

“Loki?” A large hand automatically settled on her arm and rubbed it affectionately before returning to holding his book open.

“Hmmm?”

“Please will you teach me? About whatever it is I can do, I mean.”

“I will try Erika, but you must understand that it did take me a long time to harness my Seidr and to use it to the best of my ability. In fact, I am still learning.”

“I understand.” Replied Erika, “I know you had a wonderful teacher and I know you never stop learning, but I want to be able to help others without harming myself… I want to be able to do good, just like you and now that I have much longer to live, I have all the time in Asgard to be your willing student!”

“Indeed you do!” Laughed Loki. He kissed the top of her head and hugged her against him, “It would be my pleasure to teach you.”

“Oh thank you, Loki!” Erika nestled closer to him and placed a small hand on his chest as she looked into the glowing logs of the fire, thinking of ways in which she could use her gifts for the good of all, “I love you, Loki.”  
“And I love you, Erika.” Said Loki, his mind considering all sorts of potential in this young girl whose powers were as yet untapped, “I will make a Goddess of you yet.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I think it is interesting, especially as an older person, to observe and experience how our roles change throughout our lives. Whilst I appreciate there are many walks of life and that not everyone lives an average one, in a given "average" life, one can usually expect that we will eventually take on the role our parents played and then our grandparents, possibly even great grandparents if that is what is in store for us.
> 
> In the same way I thought it would be interesting to allow Loki to evolve from student to teacher. In my mind, He was nurtured by Frigga in a caring yet sensible fashion when He was younger. I don't think She was soft, far from it, but I think She gave Him an appreciation for things that warriors are far too busy sparring to be bothered with. He may be the Mischief, the Trickster, whatever you like to name Him, but He is also the free spirited Sky Walker, fleet of foot and shape shifter extraordinaire. He brings dynamism and change; He creates chaos yet solves problems. He is involved. He is fascinated by all The Nine has to offer and I believe He - along with the other Gods - is still out there having adventures and a lot of fun, escaping death by the skin of His teeth and driving Odin et al bonkers with His wacky escapades. Just because the poems are no longer written does not mean He has magically stopped existing! In fact there are many who claim to have experienced His presence and they do journal it. One thing to note however, is that you cannot tame Him; indeed you may invite his wrath if you try to invoke Him in order to coerce Him to do your will. But if you show Him that you love Him, He may just choose to do anything you desire.
> 
> Complicated fellow, isn't He?


End file.
